Why Public Schools Matter

by Matt Donnelly

Candidate, Board of Selectmen

After leaving the convent (she was a nun for a time), my mother went on to become a public school kindergarten teacher, and there she taught two generations of townspeople to read and write. As a child, I was in turns proud and embarrassed by my mother’s chosen profession, but it wasn’t until recently that I began to truly appreciate the real work she was doing.

What do I mean by that? Simply this: She was helping children from all backgrounds to work together, learn together, laugh together, and…become American together.

The school, as a public school, took all comers: able-bodied, mentally challenged, physically challenged, black, white, Hispanic, Jew, Catholic, Protestant. You get the idea. And by the very nature of things, these children needed to find ways to get along, tolerating differences and, if all went well, getting beyond them to understand and appreciate their common humanity.

That bit about instilling an awareness of our common humanity should be the food and drink of our public schools today. This is why I support them so strongly. I don’t need to tell any readers that we live in a polarized, fractured, uncertain society, where identity politics is on the rise and civil discourse seems old-fashioned. It’s time to push back and stop the insanity.

Watching cable news and reading blogs, one might be forgiven for thinking we’ve forgotten how to live together and learn from each other, even to the point of appreciating our differences. It’s always easier to scream and yell, but I’d like to think we’re all better than that. Aren’t we?

This is why public schools are so important at this time. While we should continue to expect our public schools to uphold the highest academic standards (and I’m proud to say that Mansfield's schools are doing just that), we should also redouble our efforts to make our public schools unifying forces in society. Before our children go off to college, they should understand more about The Other, about those who practice a different religion, speak a different language, support a different political party. Our kids should be required to be a bit uncomfortable by having to deal with differences. Only in that way will they be able to resist the impulse to demonize.

Tolerance as a concept is meaningless unless we understand differences. And we can’t understand differences unless we confront them, ponder them, learn from them. We may not always agree, of course, but we can understand.

Mansfield today is a microcosm of America. Diversity lives here. For example, my youngest son attends a daycare staffed by caring Muslim teachers (one from Iran, no less). First-generation Indian children play with our white neighbors. And some of our good friends are Jewish.

I write this not to boast, but to reassure (or even remind) you that there’s a level of common humanity that runs deeper than the political and social drama of the moment. And public schools, because they bring us all together, can help ensure that the drama doesn't overwhelm or even define us. We have the choice to walk down a more noble path.